AT&T CEO: Blocked T-Mobile Acquisition Will Lead to Higher Prices

During the Milken Institute’s annual global conference, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said AT&T customers can expect higher prices following the government’s decision to block its proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA. Stephenson argued that wireless data usage will increase 75% each year for the next 5 years, The Wall Street Journal explained Thursday.

“We’re running out of the airwaves that this traffic rides on,” Stephenson said. “There is a shortage of this spectrum. The more competitors you have, the less efficient the allocation of spectrum will be. It’s got to change. I don’t think the market’s going to accommodate the number of competitors there are in the landscape.” AT&T recently had to provide $1 billion worth of AWS spectrum to T-Mobile USA as part of the terms of its break-up. Stephenson said AT&T’s data prices have increased 30% since the deal was killed.

“I wish we had moved quicker to change the pricing model to make sure the people who were using the bandwidth were paying for the bandwidth,” he added.